1. Field of the Invention
The present relates generally to the art of dispensers and more particularly to dispensers useful with food products, such as ice cream and dessert toppings. Still more specifically, the present invention relates to dispensers which load a predetermined quantity of product from a reservoir into a compartment and dispense same when activated by the user.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Many types of dispensers are known to the art for allowing the user to dispense pre-measured quantities of products. Such dispensers are known for use in the medical field, for industrial products such as dry chemicals and for various food products, such as ground coffee, nuts, toppings, candy and the like. Several of such dispensers will be described in this section of the specification. It is also known in the art that an agitator may be deployed in the product reservoir to insure that product contained within the reservoir flows into the measuring compartment.
Many of the prior art dispensers are complex and include a large number of parts which make them expensive, difficult to assemble and difficult to clean. Moreover, certain of the prior art products do not insure complete filling or dispensing of product, especially for products which may become sticky and agglomerate, such as candy toppings used with ice cream or non-dairy drinks and desserts. Exemplary of such toppings which are popular for use with ice cream or soft-serve desserts are candy-covered chocolate pieces, cookie bits, chocolate-covered peanut butter bits and the like. Factors such as temperature and humidity can affect the dispensing of such products, as can the amount of time between dispensing operations.
With some prior art dispensers, the dispensing chambers may fill only partially, even where agitators are provided. All types of products, even non-food products, compact, and flow, when in a compacted condition is difficult. The way in which the product is handled, along with humidity and temperature, which can lead to such a result.
It is also common with many prior art dispensers to have the opening to the chambers be the same size as the entrances to chambers themselves, whereby immediately upon rotation of a chamber from beneath a filling hole, the chamber entrance is closed off from the reservoir.
It would be highly desirable in this art to have a dispenser that is easy to manufacture, assemble, disassemble and use, and that would insure the dispensing of predetermined quantities of a variety of products, especially products which have a tendency to agglomerate, such as toppings.
Exemplary of prior art dispensers is Landers, U.S. Pat. No. 4,930,685, issued Jun. 5, 1990 for "Ice-Dispensing Apparatus And Method", In this dispenser, a rotatable wheel is located at an angle and is positioned in the recess of a sloping front wall. Paddles extend radially outwardly from a shaft and move ice along the front wall of the recesses as the wheel is rotated. Angular arms extend from a shaft to break ice bridges as the shaft rotates with the wheel. This dispenser does not employ individual chambers to load with product, but it does attempt to solve the problems of product bridging through the use of arms.
A "Dispenser For Fluent Materials" is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,785,976, issued Nov. 22, 1988 to Bennie, et al. A rotating plate is mounted between upper and lower plates, all of which have orifices formed in them. The orifices of the upper and lower plates are out of register with one another. Product is only dispensed when the intermediate plate is rotating.
Katz, in U.S. Pat. No. 3,522,902 issued Aug. 4, 1970, describes "Non-Bleeding Dispensers For Powdered Material And The Like". Katz provides blades for breaking product bridges and includes a rotating disk having four passageways at the bottom of a receptacle. A tab covers one of the chambers when its contents are being dispensed through a similarly shaped opening in the bottom of the container. Plastic veins in the dispensing head "snap" into place to signal to the operator that the dispenser is in the proper position to yield a measured quantity of powder.
Another item is shown in Hoskins, U.S. Pat. No. 3,129,853, issued Apr. 21, 1964 for "Granular Material Dispensing Device". A screw-on dispenser for a jar of powder, such as coffee creamer, includes an upper plate having a circular opening therein, an intermediate member with a single cylindrical chamber having a diameter matching that of the opening in the upper plate, and a bottom closure offset from that of the upper plate. A coil spring spaces the latter two components, and a screw is arranged axially to hold the assembly together. A tab on the intermediate member is used to rotate the chamber from a loading position to the unloading position, following which the procedure can be repeated by moving the chamber back beneath the single opening in the upper plate.
Another ice dispenser is shown and described in Dickinson, U.S. Pat. No. 3,101,872, issued Aug. 27, 1963, for "Ice Storing And Dispensing Mechanism For Beverage Dispensing Machines And The Like". This device includes a cylindrical reservoir, a motor mounted axially thereof and a shaft passing along the axis of the reservoir. The shaft includes a plurality of radially disposed bars used to maintain the ice in a flowable condition. Four chambers are provided in a rotatable member located at the bottom of the reservoir, each of the chambers having a conical shape, expanding to a larger diameter near to the bottom wall. A cylindrical opening leads from the bottom wall to an ice chute. Another smaller opening is provided to drain water from the ice in the chamber in front of the chute outlet. An ice scraper is provided above the top of the rotatable member and is designed to prevent ice build-up along the outside walls. The ice scraper is held in place by a set screw passing through the wall of the cylinder.
Bode, in U.S. Pat. No. 3,269,612, issued Aug. 30, 1966 for "Measuring And Dispensing Device" illustrates yet another multi-compartment dispenser. The single opening from a jar, the compartments and the single dispenser outlet have the same cross-sections, and the patent relates primarily to providing an effective seal between four elements.
Three other dispensing devices include similar operating principles. They differ in end-use application and relatively minor mechanical detail. In Steinmetz, U.S. Pat. No. 2,944,707, issued Jul. 12, 1960 for "Dispensing Device", a cylinder serves as a reservoir and leads to a threaded coupling. Below the coupling, three rotatable elements are provided, each having a single, cylindrical opening therethrough. They differ in depth. A cylindrical opening having an identical cross-section to the rotatable elements is provided in the bottom plate of the reservoir. A single opening is provided in the bottom of the rotatable unit for dispensing product, this latter opening being offset from the entrance opening. By selection of different alignments of the three rotatable elements, three different measured amounts may be dispensed.
A further "Measuring Dispenser" is described in U.S. Pat. No. 2,901,150, issued Aug. 25, 1959 to Matter. In this device, the top opening of the dispensing member includes a round opening of relatively small cross-sectional area. Disposed beneath that opening are six measuring portions, each being triangular in shape and being substantially larger than the opening. The bottom of the dispenser includes a circular opening offset from the location of the top opening. The rotatable member features a radially extending tab for operating it, and the tab extends about the entire circumference of the dispenser. This is accomplished by providing separate top and bottom halves for the dispenser, and by mounting the device axially for rotation.
Yet another "Measuring and Dispensing Device" is shown in Tepper, U.S. Pat. No. 2,898,010, issued Aug. 4, 1959. This device employs a measuring and rotating member having two generally triangular shaped openings and one closed compartment. A top plate has an opening and is axially rotatable about the device. A mounting spring insures that the top plate is oscillated back to a return position. The device is particularly adapted for use in measuring coffee creamer and the like. The opening into the receiving and measuring areas is somewhat less than the cross section of the compartments themselves.
A pill dispenser is disclosed in the Mar. 6, 1951, U.S. Pat. No. 2,543,934, issued to Poskey and entitled "Bracket For Supporting An Inverted Mason Type Jar Containing Articles To Be Dispensed, Including A Receptacle With Rotary Valve". Four individual chambers are provided for receiving one pill each, the chambers being rotatable about a common axis. A guard plate is mounted between the reservoir and the rotatable member to insure that only one pill will be dispensed at a time.
Another dispenser, this time for food products, is shown in UK Patent Application GB 2 190 655 A, published on Nov. 25, 1987, and entitled "Nut Dispenser." In this device, a nut storage hopper is provided beneath a receptacle, and a flexible rubber component is arranged to level off the amount of nuts within any compartment. Further rotation of a drum results in the discharge of nuts through an opening which is offset from its inlet. The opening from the reservoir is smaller than the measuring compartments.
Finally, French Patent No. 721,907 published Mar. 9, 1932, discloses a dispensing device which includes two measuring compartments having opposed inlets for simultaneous loading. Rotation of the compartments 90.degree. places them into an unloading position. The patent discloses a cap which fits over the receiving area and commingles the two measuring quantities for subsequent use.
While a large number of prior art devices are disclosed in the patent literature, several deficiencies still remain to be solved, most notably the accurate measurement of a large variety of product types from a single dispenser, the breaking of product bridges, the loading of such products in an accurate and easy-to-operate manner, and the construction of such devices in a simplified way to facilitate manufacturer, assembly, installation, repair and cleaning by relatively unskilled workers.